Dimming lights without a dimmer is possible. It`s easy, fast and very affordable.
You basically got three options if you want to dim your light bulbs without a dimmer.
Dimming lights bulbs without a dimmer options:
- Sceneswitch bulbs
- Smart bulbs
- DIY project (which I don`t recommend)
Number one and best option is Sceneswitch bulbs which I do recommend. These light bulbs work with your existing light switch on the wall and on regular lamp fixtures. For full review check below.
Second option: Smart bulbs are great for dimming without a dimmer but they are expensive but if you don`t mind the high price they are a great choice.
Third option: DIY project is something I don`t recommend. Yes you can build a dimmable bulb with a diode but it can be very dangerous because of the electric shock risk.
Philips SceneSwitch Review
I’ve got a pretty interesting product to review today. One that I almost wrote off but then upon second glance I was like you know this is actually pretty cool. This is the Philips scene switch LED bulb.
This is the 60 watt version, it`s also available in 100W and 65W reflector lamp.
Any light fixture can be dimmable
You got three brightness options with the sceneswitch bulb and you don`t need a dimmer
This reminds me a lot of old-fashioned three-way light bulbs that had three different brightness levels but instead of brightness levels this bulb has three different color temperatures or shades of white light.
Different activities require different light settings
Color temperatures for your home
Now if you’re not familiar with what color temperature means, let me just review for you real quick.
This philips bulb is the scene switch bulb at 2700 K.
Color settings without a dimmer
Kelvin is the scale,from blue on the cooler side and higher numbers
to warm on the lower side with lower numbers.
Kelvin is just the degree number that everything is measured in for color temperatures.
The above light bulb setting is soft white which is what we’ve been used to with incandescent lighting for the longest time.
This bulb will also switch to daylight white which definitely has a much more blue look to it. And that’s again on the higher side
of the Kelvin scale kind of what you would expect to see at like noon in broad daylight outside.
You can definitely see the bluish light if you compare to the former one that is the warmer soft white kind of a more yellowish light.
You can make the light bulb less bright – Night light mode
This also has one more setting, the third setting
is 2200 Kelvin and it also dims the light down to about 15% brightness.
So the different light options you have with this bulb are:
Soft white, daylight white(more bluish) and cozy warm glow.
You don`t need to use any apps, controllers or home automation it’s all built into the bulb for under 10 dollars which is great because you don’t have to buy multiple bulbs to get different types of color temperature of your light.
And you don’t have to buy dimmers, you don’t have to do any of that
if you want something really simple this bulb may be the bulb for you.
Now let`s dim it down and take the shade off so you can see the what the bulb looks like.
It looks like a standard LED bulb and it’s pretty much exactly what their other bulbs by philips look like.
I’ve got another one here this is one of their hue bulbs
that is just a white bulb and very similar in design and shape.
Heat testing the bulb
This review wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t do some testing for heat temperature of the bulb.
So we’ll look at the bulb shell itself which is about 105 degrees and it’s been running for a while so that’s not too bad.
The heat sink itself on the bottom which is metal of course gets much warmer about 130 degrees.
How to dim a lamp
Energy saver
It’s an energy-efficient bulb at 9.5 watts, 8 watts and 3 watts. Respectively for the different soft white, daylight white and super cozy warm glow mode.
Life time of sceneswitch bulb and warranty
These are not specifically designed to last as long as other regular LED bulbs. Normal led bulbs without scene selection will last you 20 to 25 years.
This sceneswitch LED bulbs is supposed to last about 13.7 years probably just due to the change in technology that they’re generating these different colors of light.
Philips has a standard 5 year warranty on the bulb that you can double to ten years . You just simply register the bulb online within 60 days of purchase at their website and you’ll get 10 years of warranty out of it.
The companies are usually pretty good about replacing the bulbs if
they go out within the warranty period, so I think that’s a smart move to register to get the 10 years warranty.
Brightness confirmed
These bulbs deliver 800 lumens or 60 watt equivalent light output at the soft white and daylight white.
And then about 80 lumens and 3 watts when you want to create a kind of a cozy warm glow.
Smart features
A really good feature is that once you turn it off and you wait at least five seconds and you turn it back on it will resume its last setting.
So you don’t have to worry about flipping it on and off a bunch of times the next time you turn it back on so it has some smart features built into it as well but not for the smart bulb price.
Sum Up
If you’re looking for something simple not like the advanced home automation stuff with Philips hue and all the more expensive color-changing, this may be something for you in terms of if you don’t want to deal with dimmers, don’t want to install special stuff and just have on/off functionality.
If you use one to replace a 60 watt incandescent it’ll pay for itself in energy savings in just over a year, then continue saving you money for years to come.
Remote control your dimmer
